The Fuller Brush Girl

This was one of Lucille Ball's last theatrical films prior to the debut of "I Love Lucy", and from the looks of things it was the final primer for her role as Lucy Ricardo. "The Fuller Brush Girl" was filmed in 1950 as a sequel to the very popular "The Fuller Brush Man", which starred Lucille's male counterpart, Red Skelton.

It's the story of a young couple, Sally and Humphrey, who want to get married, buy a house and live happily ever after. But just as they are able to place a down payment on their dream house, Sally causes an electrical fire at the shipping company where she and Humphrey work and loses her job. Undaunted Sally decides to try her hand at door-to-door sales as a Fuller Brush Girl (she actually sells cosmetics, not brushes). Meanwhile back at the shipping company Humphrey is promoted to shipping manager, only he doesn't realize that he is being set-up as the fall guy by a smuggling ring. Through a hilarious set of circumstances the bumbling Fuller Brush Girl and the smuggling ring get mixed-up with each other and all hell breaks loose. In the ensuing tangle, there is murder, talking parrots, police chases, a very funny striptease and some of the funniest sight-gags ever put on film.

The cast includes a very young Eddie Albert as Humphrey, Jeff Donnell as Sally's best friend and a who's Who cast of character actors.

If you are looking for a movie with Lucille Ball at her comical best, this is the one.

As a trivia note, the musical number in the film "Put The Blame On Mame" is the same recording used to dub Rita Hayworth's voice in the film "Gilda".

This was a nice surprise. I didn't know what to expect, but what I got was a lot of laughs. Sure, many of the gags were simple slapstick stuff but it worked. This was truly a funny movie and Lucille Ball and Eddie Albert made a great pair.

This film also was a good preview of what audiences were going to see down the road when Ball became super-famous on television. She plays a similar type of character: a well-meaning ditz who gets into one jam after another. Here, she winds up an innocent victim and has gangsters chasing her and Albert all over town.

I only wish this was out on DVD or even on a good VHS tape in the United States. With only a couple of reviews, apparently most people have never heard of it. It's worth seeing and owning, believe me.

The first lady of TV comedy (Lucille Ball) and the King of society folk in the country (Eddie Albert of "Green Acres") are the wackiest comedy team since Burns and Allen in this fun farce, one of the most delightful comedys of the 1940's.

Lucy plays Sally Elliott, a recently fired receptionist who is engaged to Eddie Albert's bumbling file clerk, Humphrey Briggs. They want to buy a house but can't afford the monthly payments. Briggs is hired by his crooked boss (Jerome Cowan) as the front for a shipping scam and Lucy takes up selling cosmetics as a Fuller Brush Girl. The two end up involved in a murder investigation when a misunderstanding between Cowan and his wife (Lee Patrick of "Auntie Mame") erupts. Not since Red Skelton's "Whistling" films had murder been so farcial, and Eddie and Lucille deliver the goods.

First of all, Lucy here isn't the same as she was as any of her TV Lucy characters. They were wacky and dimwitted, but Lucy here is more of a victim of circumstance. She is just the epitome of the girl in the wrong place at the wrong time. For example, when pal Jeff Donnell visits Lucy before she is fired, it is not Lucy's stupidity which causes her to get into trouble; It is more a combination of clumsiness and bad timing. Next, when Lucy gives some home perms to a group of ladies who lunch, it is the old switcharoo which causes Lucy to get deeper and deeper into trouble. Of course, these sequences are hysterical and straight out of the farcical moments of "I Love Lucy". Lucy's later show biz desperations of her TV series are perfectly represented here by Sally's entrance into a burlesque show. With hysterically long false eye lashes, overdone makeup, and some hysterically bad dance movements, Lucy's well-performed "untalent" is guaranteed to leave the audience exhausted from laughing so much. The finale chase sequence aboard a ship is also full of laughs. As a result, this classic comedy is guaranteed to provide the audience with more than the usual number of laughs.

Gale Robbins, a vixen of the late 40's and early 50's, is good as the bad girl, while Jeff Donnell (later Quartermain housekeeper Stella on "General Hospital"), Lee Patrick, Jerome Cowan, and a whole slew of famous character faces whose names we don't know, do good as well in smaller parts. Even Fuller Brush Man Red Skelton makes an appearance here, reuniting Lucy with her leading man from 1943's MGM classic "DuBarry Was a Lady" where Lucy first showed off her flaming red hair.

This is a classic not-to-miss comedy not only for fans of Lucy but for movie buffs who want to see what classic comedy really is.

Sally Elliot (Lucille Ball) and boyfriend Humphrey Briggs (Eddie Albert) struggle to make the down payment for their dream home. Humphrey gets a surprise promotion but he's actually being setup as the fall guy by his boss. Sally's friend Jane is a Fuller brush girl selling cosmetics door-to-door. When Sally gets fired for blowing up the switchboard, she tries to join Jane as a Fuller brush girl but it leads to door-to-door misadventures.

Lucy is being the Full Lucy. She's hanging on a line, steamed like a roll, rolled like a wheel, drinking like a fish, and gets real blown up. I like babysitting and bad perms. The whole smuggling premise is convoluted and messy. It does allow her to do all crazy physical comedy. It would be funnier if it all flows directly out of her door-to-door sales. Humphrey is a side character and is almost unnecessary. This is all Lucy. She could have done this solo.

Bacon may have directed, but the sight gags are pure Tashlin. His cartoonish style is perfect for out-and-out slapstick. Note the number of physical exaggerations, right out of storyboard animation. Actually, Tashlin's the perfect spark to get Ball's comedic career in motion, which I gather this movie did.

The plot line itself is patterned after the many occupational comedies of the time—The Good Humor Man (!950), The Yellow Cab Man (1950), etc.-- as Sally (Ball) and Humphrey (Albert) get hilariously mixed up with cops and crooks. Red Skelton even puts in an amusing cameo from his Fuller Brush Man (1948).

The gags fly fast and furious maybe too much so, along with an overlong climax. Still, the set-ups are consistently inventive, while Ball gets to show a lot of sex appeal along with the clowning. Albert strives manfully to keep up, but it's Ball who gets the close-ups and the spotlight. Catch her versatility, for example, as she moves effortlessly into her amusing nightclub act.

I don't know why the pro's consistently downgrade the film—TCM giving it only two stars out of four. True, the slapstick gets a little frenetic at times, but the results remain pretty darn funny and provide a great early glimpse of TV's top comedienne in the making.